Be a Part of Something Bigger: The Little Dash

Ephesians 3:17b-19

   I’ve been thinking about my father over the past week. He passed away just over a year ago with this inscribed on his gravestone: Charles Richard Waybright, December 20, 1922 – December 31, 2014.

   I want you to notice the little dash between my father’s birth and his death. It’s something that the Rev. Otis Moss from Cleveland, Ohio made note of when he he preached at the funeral service for Dr. Martin Luther King’s mother. Reverend Moss said he didn’t want to talk about the day Mrs. King was born or about the day she died. He wanted to talk about that little dash. He said, that little dash was where the meaning of Mrs. King’s life was to be found.

   “What do we do,” Rev. Moss asked, “with that little dash that is our life?”

     So, let me ask you today: “What are you going to do with that little dash that is your life?”

     That is the question that has led us to our current preaching series entitled, “Be Part of Something Bigger”. We know that God is involved in doing something big in our world. He is, according to Rev. 21 & 22, making all things new. And, he gives us the privilege to play a part in what he is doing in his world. We are his witnesses. We are God’s ambassadors of reconciliation. The point of this sermon series is that “the little dash” that we call our lives can be a part of God’s something bigger.

     I believe all this. I have been preaching to you about this privilege that we have to have our lives make a difference for the building of God’s eternal kingdom. However, today, I want to pull back a bit -- and give you a warning. This matter of thinking about our lives being a part of something bigger can easily lead us to thinking that what God most desires is that we accomplish huge things with our lives (as the world considers “huge things”) and that we have to prove our value to God by our efforts in having an impact in this world. So, let me tell you today that there is nothing less “Christian” than thinking that God’s love for you is dependent on what you accomplish in the world’s eyes. God loves you! He knows everything about you – all your accomplishments and failures, all your joys and grief – and he loves you.

     So, today, near the end of our current series on that “little dash” of your life being a part of something bigger, I want to remind you of 2 ½ verses that have become my prayer for all who are part of Lake Avenue Church. I often tell you how much I love you in this church. But, my love is nothing compared to God’s.

     Listen to this wonderful prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed for church people in Ephesians 3:17b-19:

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all God’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

The Power to Know You Are Loved – “I pray that you have power…”

There is something in this prayer that is heard too rarely even in church: This prayer is a prayer for power – but not for power in the way we usually pray for it. Most of our prayers are for power -- power to make it through a difficult situation, power to overcome an addiction, or power to be able to have boldness in witness for Jesus Christ.

Paul’s prayer is that you will have power for one thing: to grasp and to experience how much Jesus loves you. I must say it clearly: This is not a prayer for you to love Christ more.   Preachers, teachers and Christian parents often call church people to love Christ more – and it’s right to do so. But do not miss this today: This prayer is that you will grasp and know more about Christ’s love for you.

Notice the two words he uses: to grasp the love of Christ” and “to knowthe love of Christ.” “Grasp” (katalabesthai) speaks about understanding something with our minds. Our minds are very important gifts from God. Living for Jesus instead of being conformed the the way we would otherwise live in the world begins, according to Romans 12:1-2, with “the renewing of our minds.” So, there is an important place for learning, i.e., “grasping”, what God has revealed about Himself in His Word. When you grasp what God has revealed about himself in Scripture, you discover that a foundational truth about God is that “God is love.” My prayer for you today is that you will grasp that the loving Maker of the universe loves you personally.

But Paul will not leave his prayer simply with wanting you to “grasp” something intellectually about Christ’s love for you. Paul’s prayer is not just for the head but also for your heart – for your whole being. He prays also that you will “know” (gnonai). This is word that includes personal experience. You may grasp what people mean when they say they love you and still not experience it in your inner being. But Jesus does love you! Sometimes, you need God’s power to help what you grasp with your mind to move deeply into all that you are. Paul’s prayer – and my prayer – is that you may both grasp and know that Jesus loves you.

And, one of the exciting things about being a follower of Jesus is that there is always more to grasp and to know about Jesus’ love for you. No matter how long you have been a Christian and no matter how much you have studied, there is always more to learn. See how the Apostle Paul searches for ways to tell us how beautiful this is. He doesn’t just speak of 3 dimensions – Jesus’ love for you is too big for that. Paul, in his wonder, speaks of four: Jesus’ love for you is “wide and long and high and deep”.

I’m sure you know that the man who wrote this had once been involved personally in the murder of Christians. Then, Jesus met him – and forgave him. Jesus took the “little dash” of Paul’s life and redirected everything. Paul could never get over the fact that while he was a sinner, Jesus loved him and died for him!

This is the main thing that sets our Christian faith apart for other religions. Our faith is all about a God who loves us in spite of ourselves. We do not earn God’s love. When we “grasp” that God loves us in spite of our failures, the only appropriate thing we can do is say, “In view of your mercy, I offer my body – indeed, all that I am -- to you, Loving Lord Jesus, as my act of worship.” (See Rom 12:1-2.) Because of that, before Paul tells you how to live in response to the love of Christ (which he will do in Ephesians 4-6), he first prays that you will have power, power to grasp and know the love of Christ.

So, here’s a big question: Why do we need power for that? Paul knew why! Paul, who even at the end of his life considered himself the “worst of all sinners” (1 Tim 1:15), knew you would need power to believe what God has said about his love for you. You and I seem always to revert to the thought that, “I have to live well enough to maintain someone’s love.” Many of us have lived our whole lives trying to be worthy of someone else’s respect and love. We sometimes feel we have to be perfect for another person to value us. And, that kind of perfectionism is thoroughly destructive – because we all know that we are not perfect.

In our spiritual lives, we know that God is perfect and holy – and we all know that we are not! Furthermore, I think, most of us believe that God knows we are not perfect. So, we find it so hard to grasp that the God who knows all about us still loves us.

I remember many of my meetings as a university president with student leaders. I found so many of our wonderful students would open up their lives to me. They would speak to me of their genuine desires to walk with God – but also of the many scars in their pasts. Some continued to failed with ongoing struggles with addictions – sometimes sexual addictions and sometimes chemical addictions. They knew they had fallen short of what God would have them to be. They wondered if it was truly possible that God, knowing everything about them, could love them.

What they needed was power -- power to grasp that what God has said is true: that God loved them and would never give up on them. And, I’m telling you that the same thing is true of us in church today – whether you are a child, a student, or a great-great-grandparent. And, my prayer for you this morning at the Lake Avenue Church is the same prayer that Paul had for the Ephesians, i.e., that you will have the power to grasp and know how much Jesus loves you.

The Love that Changes Your Life -- “…that you may be filled the measure of all the fullness of God”.

This is remarkable language – among the most majestic language in the entire Bible. And notice: what the Bible says is that when you live a life in response to the love of Christ, what will happen to you is that you, yes you, will “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God!”

What does this mean? It’s similar to Paul’s promise in Romans 8 that our destiny as followers of Jesus is that someday, through the work of God’s Spirit, we will be conformed to the image of Christ. Here in Eph 3, the idea is that when you – through faith -- truly grasp and know how much Christ loves you, will become complete as God is complete, mature as God is mature. We human beings were made in God’s image but but sin has distorted us – ruined us. Now, we human beings usually have a deep inner longing to be what God created us to be. I find that most people live with an intuition that something is missing in their lives. Human beings need forgiveness for things done in the past. That’s what Christ made available on the cross. But, we also need ongoing growth – what theologians have called sanctification. In Eph 3, it’s quite clear that we will never have any hope to be what God made us to be unless we grasp and know the love of Christ.

Of course, through the study of the social sciences, the truth of this biblical teaching is being proven to be true. There are many studies that show that unless we live in the context of loving relationships, we will find it difficult to grow, i.e., to become emotionally and relationally strong. Of course, with the breakdown of many families and institutions in our Western world, it is likely that many, many people will live their lives without ever truly experiencing unconditional love. But, what the world does not offer, God does. “Jesus loves you. This I know for the Bible tells us so!”

     I need to illustrate this for you. In the mid-1970s, I spent a part of the Christmas season in Duisburg, a city situated in Germany’s famous industrial area. Once it had been a quite beautiful city. But, by the time I visited, what I saw was a bizarre landscape of smokestacks, slag heaps, polluted soils, industrial ruins, and filthy waterways. Let me show you an example what I saw in Duisburg. PUT IMAGES HERE.

     When my German friends heard I would be doing concerts in Duisburg on my first Christmas, they said, “Oh, no! Don’t go there. It doesn’t reflect well on the beauty of our country.” And it certainly didn’t.

     Some of you know that my artist son, Brandon, has made me aware of a global movement called reclamation art. Artists in many urban areas around the world are seeking to reclaim some of the beauty of areas devastated by decades of industrial pollution. The artists in those projects talk about a vision to restore their communities from the affects of pollution to the beauty and usefulness that they believed was possible.

     Let’s go back to Duisburg now. In the 1990s, Latz & Partners decided to focus on one devastated section of Duisburg. These reclamation artists and teams hoped to have the economy begin to flourish again while, at the same time, reestablishing its beauty. Let me show you how it looks now: PUT IMAGES HERE.

     You and I have the opportunity to be part of God work of reclamation art. Earlier in Eph 2:10, Paul said, “You are God’s work of art – God’s masterpiece.” Jesus loves you and, when you follow him, he promises to change your life into something that reflects his glory. Jesus loves you so much that he died to forgive your sins. He loves you too much to leave you in your sins too. So, look at the “little dash” of your life. You cannot remake yourself. You must let Jesus enter in, cleanse your past and then remake your future through the power of the Holy Spirit. And, it all begins by grasping and knowing personally the love that Jesus has for you. So, I pray today that you will grasp and know more of Christ’s love for you “so that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.”

The Divine Answer to This PrayerRooted and establish in love… together with all God’s people…

     The thought that we are loved while we are sinners (rom 5:8) – that we can be loved to this extent even while we are thoroughly unworthy of it is -- is counter-cultural and completely counter-intuitive. People from every culture in the world naturally think that we have to show ourselves to be worthy of love. So, what we do is that we try to hide our imperfections. We try to pretend that we’re more perfect than we are. And, it all leaves us drained – and hopeless – because we keep falling short of the glory of the God in whose image we are made. Where is there hope for people like us?

     Answer #1: But here is a wonderful part of the Good News, i.e., God offers you the most important thing in the world (His love) – even if you’ve never experienced a community of love in this world before. He does so, first, by telling you over and over in his Word that he loves you.

. God declares to you that nothing in or outside this world can ever separate you from his love that comes in Christ Jesus. Do you grasp what God says? Do you believe him?

Answer #2: If you have never experienced anything like God love in your family or in your community, God has chosen to plant local churches in places like Pasadena made up of people who are commanded to love one another as Jesus loves us. Jesus said we are to be a family of love to one another in such a way that a person who has never really experienced love should come to a church where Jesus is Lord and find Christ-like love among his people. How did Jesus put it to the rich young ruler in Mark 10? “If you leave everything behind and follow me, I know you will have nothing. On your own you will be destitute. But, when you follow me, you will have 100-fold houses and lands, mothers, brothers and sisters.” The point is that Jesus often enables us to experience his love through his people.

     So, here in Ephesians 3, Paul wants us to know that we are to experience Christ’s love through life in the family of God we call the church.   He uses two important phrases: He says that we’ve been “rooted and established in love.” This is what God has done for us. He has lavished His love on us and, then has rooted us in this world into a church with many different kinds people who are to love as Jesus loves.

     And do not miss that phrase in our text, “Together with all the God’s people? It is very emphatic! The Bible is saying that we can experience the otherwise unknowable love of God in the community of people who have experienced God grace, mercy and love through faith in Jesus.

     It’s supposed to work this way: As we experience the unity and love of people in a local church we otherwise would never love except that we’ve all been rescued by Jesus, we begin to grasp and know the love of God and we grow to be what God would have us be.

     I need to experience God’s love here at LAC! I know you need that too! We grasp and know the love of Jesus in many ways – but one of the main gifts God gives us is one another. In experiencing the love of Jesus through faith, that “little dash” that is our lives can grow and bring glory to God.

     And that brings us to communion today. In John 14, Jesus declared, “Greater love has no human being than this – to lay down your life for a friend… and you are my friends…” Jesus not only taught this. He did it. To help us never to forget how much he loves us, he told us that when we gather together, we are to remember that he loves us so much that he gave his body and blood for our rescue and remaking…

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the God’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

大使命的一部分：短短的波折號

以弗所書3：17b-19

            在過去的一周裏我常常想到我的父親。他去世一年有余了。在他的墓碑上刻著：查爾斯·理查·唯布萊，1922年12月20日--- 2014年12月31日。

            我想讓大家留意一下我父親的生辰與逝世年日之間的那個短短的波折號。奧提斯·摩斯牧師在馬丁·路德·金博士母親的葬禮上講道的時候提到了它。摩斯牧師說，他不想談金太太出生或是去世的當天。他想說說那個短短的波折號。他說，金太太一生的意義，都涵蓋在那個短短的波折號之中了。

            摩斯牧師說:“我們在那一道短短的波折號之間能做什麽呢？”

            因此，我想問問大家：“你在代表自己一生的波折號之間打算做些什麽呢？”

        這個問題使我們想到了目前主題為“大使命的一部分”的系列講道。我們知道，神要在世上行大事。根據啟示錄21章和22章，祂要做一件新事，並且，祂給了我們權柄，使我們參與其中。我們是祂的見證人。我們是使神與人和好的使者。這個講道系列的重點就是，我們生命中的這一道短短的波折號，可以成為神的大使命的一部分。

            我確信這一點。我一直以來在講道中都強調這個權柄，我們的生命要在建立神永恒的國度中有所作為。然而今天，我想從另一個角度，給大家一個忠告。成為神的大使命的一部分，很容易會使我們認為，神一定想要讓我們在有生之年完成宏偉的事情（就是世人所認為的大事），而且我們需要用自己的努力向神證明我們影響世界的價值。因此今天，我想告訴大家，如果你認為，神愛你是因為你在世人眼中的成就，那麽就沒有比這個更不像“基督徒”的了。神愛你！祂了解你的一切，包括你所有的成就和失敗，所有的喜樂和悲傷，祂愛你！

            因此今天，在使你生命中的“一段波折號”成為大使命的一部分的講道系列即將結束的時候，我想提醒大家，這兩節半的聖經已經成為我為湖邊大道教會所有會友的禱告。我經常告訴教會的弟兄姐妹們，我愛你們，但是我的愛和神的愛相比不足掛齒。

            請聽使徒保羅在以弗所書3:17b-19中為以弗所教會的人們的禱告：

            叫你們的愛心，有根有基，能以和眾聖徒一同明白基督的愛，是何等長闊高深。並知道這愛是過於人所能測度的，便叫神一切所充滿的，充滿了你們。

有能力知道你是被神所愛的 ---- “我禱告，求祂使你有能力……”

            這個禱告中的一些話語甚至在教會中都很少聽到：這是一個向神祈求能力的禱告，但不是祈求我們通常所說的能力。我們大部分的禱告都是為著能力 ---- 渡過困難的能力，勝過惡習的能力，或者有勇氣為耶穌基督做見證的能力。

            保羅向神禱告，使你有一種能力：了解和經歷耶穌對你的愛。我必須要清楚地說明：這個禱告並不是要讓你更多地愛基督，當然，這樣做是理所應當的。但是今天，我希望你不要錯過這個要點：這個禱告是希望你能更加明白和認識基督對你的愛。

            請留意他所使用的兩個詞語：明白基督的愛和認識基督的愛。“明白”（katalabesthai）說的是用我們的頭腦理解。頭腦是神所賜給我們的非常重要的禮物，我們要為基督而活，而不是按照我們原本的方式生活。羅馬書12:1-2說：“要心意更新而變換。”因此，這裏有一個重點，就是“明白”神在祂的話語中所啟示的祂自己。當你明白神在經文中所啟示的祂自己時，你就會發現，有一個關於神的最基本的真理，那就是，“神是愛”。今天，我為你的禱告是，希望你能明白宇宙的創造者愛你。但是，保羅不會單單希望你在理智上“明白”基督對你的愛。保羅的禱告不單是為著你的頭腦，也為著你的內心，為著你的全人。他也為了你能“認識”（gnonai）而禱告。這個詞包括了個人經歷。當有人說他們愛你的時候，你可能明白他們的意思，但是卻沒有在內心中經歷。但是耶穌的確愛你！有時候，你需要神的能力幫助你在頭腦中明白，然後也能在內心中深刻領悟。保羅的禱告，和我的禱告，都是希望你明白、也認識到耶穌愛你。

            跟隨耶穌的一件令人興奮的事情是，你永遠都需要更多明白和認識耶穌對你的愛。無論你做基督徒多長時間，也不管你學習了多少，總是會有更多需要去學習。讓我們來看看，使徒保羅是如何使我們明白這件事有多麽美好的。他沒有單單提到三度空間----耶穌對你的愛太大了，他用了四度空間來表達：耶穌對你的愛是“長闊高深”。

            我想，你可能知道，寫這節經文的人曾經親自殺害過基督徒。然後，耶穌遇見了他，並赦免了他。耶穌掌管了保羅生命的那“一小段波折號”，然後重新定規了一切。保羅永遠都記得，當他還是罪人的時候，耶穌就愛他、並為他受死！

            這正是基督教信仰和其他宗教的主要分別。我們的信仰就是關乎一位愛我們的神，無論我們是誰。我們無法靠自己賺得神的愛。當我們“明白”，無論我們是否失敗，神都愛我們之後，我們所能表達感激的唯一方式，就是對神說，“因著你的憐憫，我將身體獻上，乃至我的全人都獻上歸你，親愛的主耶穌，我以此來表達我對你的敬拜。”（參羅馬書12:1-2）。正因如此，保羅在告訴你應當如何在生活中回應基督的愛之前（他在弗4-6將會說到），他首先為你禱告，使你有能力明白和認識基督的愛。

            這裏有一個重要的問題：為什麽我們需要有這樣的能力？保羅知道為什麽！保羅，直到生命的最後時刻，都認為自己是“罪人之中的罪魁”（提前1:15），他知道你需要有能力相信神所說的祂對你的愛。你和我似乎總是會回到這樣的想法：“我必須要生活得足夠好才能保持某個人的愛。”我們很多人一生都努力得到別人的尊重和愛。有時候，我們感到自己必須要完美才能得到別人的重視。然而，這樣的完美主義實際上是具有毀壞性的，因為我們都知道，我們無法成為完全人。

            在我們的屬靈生命中，我們知道，神是完全而聖潔的，我們都知道，我們無法如此！另外我想，我們大多數人都相信，神知道我們無法成為完全，因此，我們很難明白這樣一位明知道我們的一切，卻還愛著我們的神。

            我記得我在做大學院長的時候和學生領袖開過許多的會議。我發現，我們的許多出色的學生都會對我敞開心扉。他們會告訴我他們在與神同行時真實的渴望，也包括他們過去的許多傷痕。有一些人繼續掙紮於惡習之中，比如性癖好和毒癮。他們知道他們沒有達到神要求他們所做的。他們不知道神是否真的知道他們的一切之後，還仍然愛他們。

        他們所需要的就是能力，明白神所說的是事實的能力：神愛他們，永遠不會撇棄他們。讓我告訴你，今天在教會中，對我們來說也同樣如此，無論你是兒童、學生、還是太祖輩的，我今天早晨都在教會為你的禱告，與保羅給以弗所教會的禱告一樣，就是使你有能力明白和認識到耶穌有多愛你。

改變你生命的愛 ----“......使神一切的豐盛可以充滿你們”

在整本聖經中，這節經文可以算是最精彩的話語了。請大家註意：聖經的意思是，當你在生活中回應基督的愛的時候，你，是的，就是你，將會“被神一切的豐盛所充滿！”

具體來說這是什麽意思呢？它與保羅在羅馬書第八章中所說到的應許相似，作為耶穌的跟隨者，藉著聖靈的工作，我們將會有基督的形象。以弗所書第三章講到，當你藉著信心真正地明白和認識到基督是多麽地愛你時，你就會變得像神那樣完全，也像神那樣成熟。人類是按照神的形象創造的，但罪卻扭曲、毀壞了我們。然而人類通常有一個深層的內在渴望，就是希望成為神當初創造我們時的樣式。我發現，大多人都會感覺到自己的生命中缺少了一些東西。人類需要為自己做過的事情得到赦免，而這正是基督在十字架上為我們所成就的。我們也需要繼續成長，這就是神學家們所說的“成聖”。在以弗所書第三章清楚地闡明，除非我們明白和認識基督的愛，否則我們將永遠無法成為神最初創造我們的樣式。

事實上，社會科學的研究表明，聖經所教導的這個真理被證明是真實的。有許多研究顯示，除非我們生活在一個充滿愛的關系之中，否則就會發現，成長是困難的，包括在情感和人際關系上的成長。當然，因著西方世界的許多家庭和制度的崩潰，可能很多人在自己的生活中無法真正經歷到無條件的愛。然而，這個世界無法提供的，神卻能提供。“耶穌愛你。我知道，因有聖經告訴我！”

我需要清楚地向大家說明這一點。在70年代中期，我在杜伊斯堡度過了那年聖誕節的一些時間，那個城市位於德國著名的工業區。它曾經是一個相當美麗的城市。但是，當我參觀的時候，我看到的是由煙囪、礦渣堆、汙染土壤、工業遺址和骯臟水道所構成的一個怪異的景觀。讓我給大家看一張杜伊斯堡的圖片。

當我的德國朋友們聽說，我將會在首次去杜伊斯堡過聖誕期間開音樂會時，他們都說，“天哪！可別去那兒。那地方無法反映出我們國家的美麗。事實的確如此。

你們當中可能有些人知道我的兒子布蘭登是名藝術家，他曾使我留意到了一個名為“回復美景藝術”的全球運動。在世界各地許多城市的藝術家們，都在尋求回復被幾十年的工業汙染所毀壞的美麗景色。這些項目中的藝術家們都在談論著一個美好的意向，就是將那些被汙染所影響的社區，盡可能恢復成美麗和有效益的地方。

讓我們再回到杜伊斯堡。在20世紀90年代，拉茲和他的合作夥伴們決定將重點放在杜伊斯堡的一個被摧毀的地區。這些藝術家和團隊希望他們在使這個地區的經濟能夠復蘇的同時，也能重建它的美麗。請看一張它現在的圖片。

你和我都有機會成為神的“回復美景藝術”工作的一部分。在以弗所書2:10，保羅說，你是神的藝術作品，是神的傑作。耶穌愛你，祂曾應許說，你若跟隨祂，祂就改變你的生命，使你的生命彰顯出祂的榮耀。耶穌愛你，甚至為你罪得赦免而受死。因祂如此地愛你，祂不會任你在自己的罪中掙紮。所以，看一看你生活中那“一小段波折號”，你無法重新來過，你必須讓耶穌進入你的生命，清理你的過去，然後通過聖靈的力量重塑你的未來。而這一切都應當以明白和認識耶穌為你所付出的愛為開始。所以今天，我要為你禱告，使你能更多明白和認識基督對你的愛，使“神一切的豐盛充滿你們。”

神對這個禱告的回答：叫你們的愛心，有根有基，能以和眾聖徒一同明白基督的愛......

當我們還是罪人的時候，神就愛了我們（羅馬書5：8），神對我們的愛可以到這個程度 ----祂在我們完全不值得愛的時候就愛了我們，這與我們的文化和直覺是相矛盾的。世上每一種文化的人，都會很自然地認為，我們必須要表現出自己是值得愛的人。所以，我們都試圖隱藏自己的缺陷，都假裝比真實的自我更完美。而這一切只會使我們枯竭、絕望，因為我們在不斷地虧損神按照祂的形象造我們時所給予我們的榮美。像我們這樣的人，在何處能找到希望呢？

答案之一：然而有一個好消息，神將世上最重要的東西賜給了你（祂的愛），即使你從未經歷過一個充滿神的愛的群體。首先，藉著祂的話語，祂一再地地告訴你祂愛你。

神向你宣告，在世上，沒有任何事物可以將你與基督耶穌的愛分來。你明白神所說的嗎？你相信祂嗎？

答案之二：你可能從未經歷過神的愛臨到你的家庭或你的社區，那麽神已經定意要建立許多地方教會，就在帕薩迪納這樣的地方，這些教會是由許多像耶穌愛我們那樣彼此相愛的人們組成的。耶穌說，我們要成為一個彼此相愛的家庭，那些從未真正經歷過愛的人們應當來到教會，在這裏，耶穌是我們的主，他們也能找到像基督一樣愛人的人們。在馬可福音第十章中，耶穌對那個年輕富有的少年官說：“如果你拋開一切，跟隨我，你可能會一無所有。你可能會很貧窮。但是，當你跟從我，你將有百倍的房子和土地，母親，和兄弟姐妹。”其中的含義是，耶穌總是會讓我們能夠藉著他的子民來經歷祂的愛。

            因此，在以弗所書第三章，保羅希望我們知道，我們應當在神家裏的生活中經歷基督的愛，我們稱這個家庭為教會。他使用了兩個重要的詞語：他說，我們的愛心要“有根有基”。這就是神為我們所做的，祂將豐盛的愛賜給我們，然後使我們紮根於世上的教會之中，使我們像耶穌那樣愛教會中各樣不同的人們。

            請你不要錯過經文中的這個句子：“與眾聖徒一同”。這句話很有力！聖經的意思是，我們可以在一個群體中經歷神的愛，而這個群體中的人們都藉著相信耶穌而經歷了神的恩典、憐憫和愛。脫離了這個群體，神的愛就是不可知的。

            情況應該是這樣的：只有我們在教會中經歷了大家的合一和愛，我們才能學會愛，因為我們都被耶穌所救贖，因此才開始明白和認識神的愛，並且朝著神所定規的樣式成長。

            我需要在湖邊大道教會中經歷神的愛！我知道，你也需要如此！我們有很多方式可以明白和認識耶穌的愛，但是神賜給我們最重要的禮物就是我們彼此。在我們藉著信仰經歷耶穌的愛的過程中，那代表我們生命的“一小段波折號”能夠成長和榮耀神。

            今天，我們正是因此而走到一起。在約翰福音第15章，耶穌宣告說，“人為朋友舍命，人的愛心沒有比這個大的……我稱你們為朋友……”。耶穌不僅如此教導，祂還這樣行出來。為要幫助我們不要忘記祂有多愛我們，祂告訴我們，當我們聚在一起的時候，要紀念祂如此愛我們以至於為我們流血舍命，為要救贖和更新我們……

我為你禱告，希望你在愛中有根有基，有能力與神的眾子民一同明白基督的是多麽長闊高深，並且知道祂的愛是超越知識的，好使神一切的豐盛可以充滿你們。

           

榮耀歸給神，

Greg Waybright 博士

主任牧師

 

祂的荣耀，

格雷格Waybright博士
主任牧師

Greg Waybright • Copyright 2015, Lake Avenue Church